Whilst shopping for candles, the Rogues came upon a “Fireside” candle. We immediately decided it smelled like Gambit. How do we know that you ask – Don’t ask, just let it happen. This led us to discuss what we think the X-Men would smell like. Below are some of our thoughts…. what do you think your favorite comic book characters would smell like?

It’s that time again. To reiterate, every Friday the Cupcake Rogues will randomly pick 2 characters to do battle – whether it be Marvel, DC, female, male, mutant, human, or human that pretends to be a mutant with magic (I’m looking at you, Juggernaut), they are all possible. Once we’ve randomly selected our two, they will go head to head in several categories with one being deemed winner. The winner will live on to fight another day, but a warning – with 200 possible characters, it may be awhile before round 2 🙂

Thirty-Sixth week in the random selection:

Franklin Richards vs. Gambit

Franklin Richards

Gambit

Origin

Franklin Benjamin Richards is the oldest child of Reed and Sue Richards. During Sue’s pregnancy she exibited precognative powers as well as telekinesis. Turns out baby Franklin was manifesting his powers through his mother. Because of his young age and vast powers, he’s had inhibitors placed inside of him to help control them. He would eventually join Power Pack as Tattletale.

Remy LeBeau was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Some say he was cast aside when born due to his red on black eyes, while others say he was kidnapped from the hospital. Remy was referred to as “Le Diable Blanc” aka “the white devil” and people believed he was prophesized to unite the warring Thieves’ and Assassins’ Guilds. Remy was placed in the care of Fagan’s Mob, a gang of street thieves who raised him and taught him to be a thief. After living on the streets, at the age of 10, Remy attempted to pick pocket Jean-Luc LeBeau, the patriarch of the Thieves’ Guild. Jean-Luc took in the boy and adopted him into the family. Remy’s powers manifested in his early teens and he tried to keep them a secret. When he was 15, he accompanied his cousin Etienne on his tithing initiation. They were kidnapped by Candra, the immortal mutant they were stealing from, and sold into HYDRA as boy soldiers. Remy managed their escape by charging a playing card and throwing it in the slave trader’s face – thus starting his signature move. The boys jumped off of a cliff into the sea to escape. Remy was rescued, but Etienne drowned, causing one of the many memories that still haunt Remy to this day. When Remy returned to the Guild, he was set to marry Bella Donna. On their wedding day, Bella’s brother, Julien, challenged Remy to a duel. Remy killed him in self-defense and was banished from New Orleans. Remy then traveled the world as a professional thief until his powers grew out of control. It was then that he was taken in by Sinister to get his powers under control and to join the Marauders to pay off his debt.

Edge?

Gambit – The day Gambit loses to a Richards is the day we give up The Cupcake Rogues.

Powers/ Abilities

Franklin is an omega level mutant posessing vast telekinetic and reality warping powers. He also posesses precognitive abilities that nearly always come to pass. He can project himself onto the astral plane where his powers are limitless. With his reality warping powers at a cosmic level, Franklin has created planets, pocket universe’s, brought back the dead and made life doubles of people. All before his balls have dropped. WHERE WAS HE WHEN WANDA WHISPERED NO MORE MUTANTS?!

Gambit’s primary ability is the manipulation of kinetic energy. He can convert the bio-kinetic energy that his body produces into kinetic energy to charge non-organic matter. AKA Gambit make t’ings go boom. Remy’s natural mutation is extremely powerful. He could charge things with just a thought. At one point, he even meets a man who ends up being himself from another universe that has destroyed all life with his powers. Remy of our world, however, enlisted the help of Mr. Sinister when his powers became out of control. Sinister cut out a piece of his brain that greatly lessened his power, but made it controllable. In Remy’s full power, he can heal himself, block telepaths, and even touch Rogue. At his lesser power, he must touch things to charge them. He also possesses a hypnotic charm that exerts an influence over people and leads them to believe what he says. He is also highly trained in combat and stealth from being raised a prince of thieves.

As Death, Gambit can convert inert materials into toxic substances (such as changing air into poisonous gas) and has the potential to ingest diseases and plagues.

Edge?

Franklin Richards – This hurts, but the kid would probably win…Unless Gambit uses his charm to convince Franklin to banish himself to another dimension?

Love Interest

Amazingly enough, Franklin has a love interest. In most universe’s he’s linked to Rachel Summers – Another boring character. Together they spawn Hyperstorm – a futuristic despot of amazing powers. Yawwwwn.

Gambit has had the love of plenty of women, but only two really matter. The first is Bella Donna, from the Thieves rival guild, the Assassins. Remy and Bella Donna were arranged to be married to finally bring peace to the guilds. After the wedding, Bella’s brother Julien challenged Remy to a duel,as he hated the mutant thief. Remy won, killing Julien and resulting in his exile from New Orleans, as well as ending his short marriage. Years later, when Remy joined the X-Men, he found himself falling for none other than the untouchable Rogue. Cruel irony. Rogue and Remy have been on and off for years, mostly because of the fact that she has been, for the most point, untouchable, causing frustration on his end and insecurities on hers. He is currently having an off moment with the belle fille as she figures out her control, but we hope to see them on again soon.

Edge?

Gambit – Who in their right mind would choose a plate of steamed broccoli over fine French cusine? A communist, that’s who!

Costume

Most of the time Franklin is a little boy so it’s mostly the best Baby Gap (You know Sue Storm shops there) has to offer. He probably runs around in Superman underwear. Suck on that Reed.

Remy wears a suit of light body armor that is magenta on the chest plate (magenta, not pink, comprenez homme?). The magenta color is used to camouflage his power’s glow. He wears his trusty trench coat to carry his extensive amount of thieving tools. He also carries a telescopic staff. When not fighting, he often wears sunglasses to cover his red on black eyes.

Edge?

Gambit – How many Franklin Richards have you seen at Comic Con? How many Gambits? We rest our case.

Most Entertaining Personality

With the combined genetics of Reed and Sue he can only be obnoxious.

Remy LeBeau is a smooth talking, flirtatious, selfish, half-truth telling, arrogant sonuva. He charms the pants off the ladies and, as Cable so lovingly put it, has a secondary mutation of being annoying to the gents. The women want him, and the men want to be him. You can’t blame dem, non?

Edge?

Gambit – While creating galaxies is a swell party trick, Franklin is a fetus, so it’s likely you’d have to hang out with his parents too.

Best story arch

During Onslaughts attack, he sought to absorb the energy of X-Man and the reality altering abilities of Franklin Richards. When Franklin was released his powers were at their highest and he created a pocket universe where he resurrected all the people Onslaught had killed.

Upon the return of Apocalypse, Gambit turned himself into the villain to be transformed into one of his Horsemen, Death. Gambit intended to infiltrate himself into Apocalypse’s team in order protect the X-Men from Apocalypse’s attack, but he hadn’t counted on the transformation warping his mind as well as his body. His hair turned white and his skin jet black, and his mind changed to Death. However he did keep a portion of himself, telling Apocalypse “I’m both Death and Gambit.” He also remembered his love for Rogue as he was unable to bring himself to kill her at first. Later, when he and Sunfire returned to the Institute to claim Polaris, Death, in an attempt to cut himself free of ties to Gambit, tried to kill Rogue, and would’ve been successful if not for Pulse neutralizing his powers. After the X-Men defeated Apocalypse, Sunfire helped Gambit to clear him of Apocalypse’s brainwashing. However, a part of Death has always remained. Later, when on a mission for Cyclops, a telepath from H.A.M.M.E.R. releases his “Death” persona once again. Gambit’s appearance turns back to normal and he goes back to the X-Men only to berate Cyclops for letting Rogue go up against Emplate all alone. He struggles with his double personas and leaves the group. In the Second Coming, while in Limbo to rescue Magik, Death emerges from Remy again, stating “Remy’s not home right now.” He transforms teammates Dazzler and Northstar into beings like him. He is then stabbed by Magik and Pixie’s magical swords enabling Gambit to gain control of the Death persona again.

Edge?

Gambit – while Franklin’s story is far more impressive in feat, it’s pretty short and over with quickly (just how this battle should be). Gambit’s story is lengthy, ongoing and entertaining (just like Gambit, non ;)?

Hotness

I feel the need for a shower even considering this…

A ridiculously handsome, chiseled bad boy with hypnotic charm that speaks French and is dynamo in the sack. He may be the hottest guy in the comic book genre.

Edge?

Gambit – This is like Steven Hawking going up against Paris Hilton in a “who’s smarter?” contest.

Fiercest foe

How about his dad? Not only is Richards a wife-abusing ass-hat, but he put his son into a coma because they couldn’t control his powers and when Hyperstorm comes a knockin’ he contacts Galactus and offers his diabolical grandson up for dinner.

Mr. Sinister. For much of Remy’s adult life, he’s been haunted by the things he’s been forced to do while indebted to the evil geneticist that gave him control over his powers. Can we say Morlock Massacre? No matter how much Remy’s done for Sinister, he always seems to get called upon again. Even in X-Men: The End, when Remy and Rogue are married with kids, ol’ Sinister is still butting in his life.

Edge?

DRAW – As we find out in “X-Men: The End,” Gambit is actually Sinister’s “son” (or clone mixed with Summers genes, ick), so both of these guys have some serious daddy issues.

Biggest WTF Moment

I submit all of the information above.

When Courier, New Son’s MALE foot soldier shape shifted into a woman, Remy – knowing full well that he’s really a man – kisses her and claims he’s just trying to “keep everyone on their toes.” I think there might be better ways to do that, Rems.

Also, when Remy was temporarily blinded (by his own card exploding in his face), he discovered that he could read playing cards like tarot cards and even predicted an attack from the Brotherhood. OK, Miss Cleo.

Edge?

Gambit – We gave Franklin powers because we had to, he’s not getting anything else.

Person who should attempt an on-screen portrayal

Great Odin’s Raven – Don’t even suggest such a thing!

Taylor Kitsch played Gambit in the monstrosity that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine. They didn’t even give him red on black eyes or make him utter one “chere,” “homme,” or “mon ami.” Lame. A better casting for an older Gambit would’ve been Josh Holloway. The fans want to see it before we have to make it X-Men: Retirement Home, Josh.

Edge?

Gambit – I don’t think we really need to explain ourselves here.

Franklin Richards: 2

Gambit: 9

And the winner is…. Gambit! And if you’re thinking that he won this battle so easily because he slept with us…. Shut up. *shifts eyes nervously*

Don’t know if you’ve all been following the Age of X reveals, but today we got our full look at the cast for Age of X and I’m kind of excited! It’ll be interesting to see how this is done… it seems AU, as some of these “new” characters seem to actually be Alternate Universe versions of real characters. For example, while Gambit is listed as Gambit and Magneto is listed as Magneto, the two added today (clearly Rogue and Jean Grey/Phoenix) are being called Reaper and Revenant. The guy in the back called Basilisk looks an awful lot like Cyclops, and so on. There isn’t a whole lot of plot detail on this yet, but since it launches on January 26, 2011, we can probably expect some soon. Thoughts?